3D printing can be a time-consuming and expensive hobby. Even if you try to do it on the cheap, it feels like I’ve adjusted, replaced, or upgraded half the parts on my Ender 3 Pro.

Anker is expanding beyond its eufy smart home devices, soundcore audio, Nebula projectors and roav car accessories. The just-revealed ankermake M5 looks like it could give leading brands a serious run for their money.

Ankermake M5 will come standard with nifty features you’d often have to tack on rival printers. A webcam that lets you watch prints remotely, records timelapse videos of your creations.

Anker claims you can take the printer’s two halves out of the box, connect them with eight screws, plug in two USB-C cables and a power adapter. It will automatically print at 250mm/sec because that is its default setting.

Roughly 1 in 10’successful’ products that reach their funding goals fail to deliver rewards. Of the ones that do deliver, delays, missed deadlines, or overpromised ideas mean that there’s often disappointment in store for those products that do get done.

The best defense is to use your best judgment. Is the company making outlandish claims?. Does the company mention existing plans to manufacture and ship finished products?.

Anker is suggesting it can cut that from a day to a matter of hours, or from a few hours to less than an hour. A printer that lets you build parts the same size as the most popular options on the market.

Anker claims it’s moving the Y-axis build plate using a fancy stepper motor. The gantry is raised and lowered on two lead screws instead of one for stability. They gave the printer a weighty, die-cast aluminum alloy base to keep it stable.

I’ll believe 250mm/sec when I see it, but I want to believe to believe. I’ll say 250mm/sec when he sees it, I wants to believe 250mm/sec.

Auto bed leveling system is the root of so many problems in 3D printing. Nifty one-button feature automatically heats and ejects the filament so you can replace it with a different one-button.

Anker says 3D printers are right at that moment where they could become, if not mainstream, then certainly more than niche. villines says it’s right at the moment where 3D printers can become, though they could be more than mainstream.

The vision here is a printer where you could download a design from the Internet, send it right to the printer’s 8GB of internal storage over Wi-Fi or remotely via the cloud. When you’re done there’s a whole timelapse video ready and waiting for you to share it on social media.

Villines says Anker will make the printer regardless of how it does during the Kickstarter campaign. Software features like intelligent failed print detection, promised voice assistant compatibility and, most of the software has n’t yet been built.

The new printer will accept gcode like other printers. It’s not yet clear what might be interchangeable between the ankermake and other products on the market.

Anker’s next 3D printer could be the first 3D printer he could recommend. Anker’s 3D printer is a 3D printer.